Vowel formant frequency characteristics of preadolescent males and females

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The vowel formant frequency characteristics (F1-F4 of 5 vowels produced in a fixed phonetic context) of 42 seven and eight yr old boys and girls and the relationship of vocal tract resonances to several indices of body size were described. The vowel resonances of male children were consistently lower than females and the extent of the sexual differences varied as a function of formant number and vowel category. Averaged across all measured formants of all 5 vowels, the overall sexual distinction was about 10%. The range of differences extended from about 3% for F1 of /i/ to 16% for F1 of /ae/. Measures of body size were always significantly related to these children''s formant frequencies (range in multiple r -0.506 to -0.866). The origin of the sexual differences in vocal tract resonance characteristics is discussed with reference to differences in vocal tract size and articulatory behaviors.

This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit: